Randall Gumpert

Published in the Reading Eagle from 11/27/2008 - 11/28/2008

Randall Pennington Gumpert, 90, Monocacy, died peacefully Nov. 25, 2008, with his extended family at his side in the Highlands of Wyomissing, where he resided for 10 months.
He was the husband of Ann Louise (Boyer) Gumpert, at home.

Born in Monocacy, he was a son of the late Abram and Emma (Nolte) Gumpert.

Mr. Gumpert had been a major league baseball player and scout. He had pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics, the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Senators.

He began his career in 1936, pitching his first game two weeks after graduation from Birdsboro High School on June 13, 1936. His final game was on Sept. 23, 1952.

He managed the Bradford Yankees in 1956, the Kearney Yankees from 1956 to 1958 and the St. Petersburg Saints in 1960.

He gave up Mickey Mantle's first home run in 1951. He last worked for the Major League Scouting Bureau of Newport Beach, Calif., for 19 years, before retiring in 1993. He was an American League All-Star in 1951.

He is a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Berks County Sports Hall of Fame, the Reading Phillies Hall of Fame, the Daniel Boone Wall of Fame and the Major League Scouting Hall of Fame.

He was a 1936 graduate of the former Birdsboro High School. He was a member of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Birdsboro, and was a World War II Coast Guard veteran.

In addition to his wife, Ann, he is survived by two sons, Michael R., husband of Peggy Gumpert, Weavertown, and Jeffrey S., husband of Suzanne Gumpert, Myerstown; and a daughter, Cynthia B., wife of Jeffrey Knauer, New Holland.

Other survivors include a sister, Winifred G., widow of John P. Weeple, Lancaster.

There are also four grandchildren: Jonathan Knauer, Whitney Knauer, Emily Gumpert and Scott Gumpert.

Memorial services will be Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 5 Brooke Manor, Birdsboro. Friends and relatives may visit from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, 10 Brookline Place West, Sixth Floor, Brookline, MA 02445-7226, or to the Berks County American Legion Baseball League Scholarship Fund, c/o Jim Snyder, Treasurer, 27 Annabeth Road, Oley, PA 19547. Dengler Funeral Home Inc., Birdsboro, is in charge of arrangements.